Twenty years ago, the Research Network Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Policies (FMM) was founded as a platform for analysis, research and discussion of macroeconomic issues. At the time macroeconomic theory and policy were dominated by neoclassical approaches. In contrast, the network was established to promote alternative, heterodox concepts of macroeconomic theory and refocus economic policy on the goals of high employment, environmentally sustainable growth, price stability, reduced inequality and poverty. At our 20th conference, we will assess the current state of macroeconomics. What has changed in the two decades since the foundation of the network? Is there greater pluralism in theoretical approaches? What are the improvements in modelling the economy in orthodox and heterodox approaches? What is the explanatory power and empirical content of macroeconomics today?

During three conference days more than 300 participants engaged in discussions with presenters of about 140 selected papers in parallel sessions and eight keynote presentations. On this website you find the conference documentation including papers, slides and videos of introductury workshops and plenary sessions.

Introductury Lectures on Heterodox Economics

On Thursday morning the conference starts with introductory lectures attracting more than 100 graduate students interested in alternative approaches to macroeconomics. These years’ workshops feature History of Economic Thought, an Introduction to Post-Keynesian economics as well as Stock-Flow Consistent and Agent-Based modelling.

Stock-Flow Consistent and Agent-Based Modelling

Welcome Address

Torsten Niechoj (Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences), co-organizer of the event, inaugurates the main part of the conference on Thursday evening and introduces Philip Arestis (University of Cambridge) by pointing out his invaluable contributions to building up the network. Philip kindly accepted to give a welcome address to the 20th anniversary conference of the FMM network.

Plenary Sessions

Each of the conference days climaxes in plenary sessions in the early evening, raising the following questions:
• Macroeconomic Theory – What have we learned?
• 20 Years of FMM – What did we contribute?
• Plural Macroeconomics – Where do we go from here?
Each session is structured by three keynote speeches and a concluding panel discussion. Please find video recordings of the contributions below.

Plenary Session I: Macroeconomic Theory – What have we learned?

The first plenary session deals with various macroeconomic approaches, their recent developments as well as current debates and issues for future research chaired by Torsten Niechoj (Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences), member of the FMM coordinating committee.

Samuelson's Mistake: How to correct it and maintain prosperity for all

Roger Farmer (University of California Los Angeles)

Roger Farmer, well known for his influential books and alternative attempts to micro foundations of Keynesian theory, was invited to talk about reconciling the core ideas of Keynes’ General Theory with the Walrasian Equilibrium Theory by means of a new version of Temporary Equilibrium Theory. Unfortunately he had to cancel his presentation due to unforeseeable circumstances. Nonetheless he kindly provides his slides for this documentation.
Download: SLIDES “SAMUELSON’S MISTAKE: HOW TO CORRECT IT AND MAINTAIN PROSPERITY FOR ALL”

Behavioural and Complexity Macroeconomics

Michael Roos (Ruhr University Bochum)

Michael Roos, distinguished researcher in the field of experimental and behavioural economics and dealing with macroeconomic issues as well as climate change and regional economics, provides an overview of the developments in behavioural and complexity economics. Based on the necessity of considering human limitations and studying real behaviour of people in order to understand economic processes he outlines existing behavioural approaches. Furthermore Michael points to open issues and introduces an approach which combines behavioural and complexity economics, which allows modelling economic agents in consideration of different aggregation levels at the same time. He discusses advantages as well as implications of this method and proposes Agent-Based modelling as a valuable tool.
Download: SLIDES “BEHAVORIAL AND COMPLEXITY MACROECONOMICS”

Post-Keynesian Macroeconomics since the mid-1990s – main developments

Eckhard Hein (Berlin School of Economics and Law)

Eckhard Hein, a long-standing member and former spokesperson of FMM, contributed to the first plenary session with an overview on developments in Post-Keynesian economics. Eckhard’s fields of interest concern financialization, distribution and growth, Kaleckian models as well as European economic policies. In his keynote speech he gives a review of Post-Keynesian macroeconomics and its major developments in the past 20 years. He classifies Post-Keynesian economics as a major heterodox approach before outlining main developments and new achievements such as the integration of distributional issues into short- and long-run macroeconomics, the integrated analysis of money, finance and macroeconomics as well as alternative macroeconomic models and policy mixes. Afterwards he discusses current debates, areas for future research and the role of Post-Keynesian theory in pluralist economics.

Plenary Session II: 20 Years of FMM – What did we contribute?

At the end of a day full of diverse presentations and lively debates all participants come together to a session chaired by Engelbert Stockhammer (Kingston University London), member of the FMM coordinating committee. This plenary session presents three areas of ongoing debates within the network and the Keynesian community.

Modelling Minsky: What have we learned and the way forward

Maria Nikolaidi (University of Greenwich)

The first contribution in this session focused financial instability. In her talk, Mario Nikolaidi, who is a distinguished scholar in the fields of financial instability and environmental issues, presents how Minsky’s theory has been modelled over past decades and how one can use these models in order to analyse contemporary issues such as financial fragility and financial instability caused by climate change. Maria introduces different types of Minsky models in the areas of corporate and household debt which can be distinguished in terms of the source of instability. For future research she proposes investigations on microeconomic financial instability by means of Agent-Based models as well as the application of Minsky modelling on issues regarding open economy, shadow banking and climate change.
Download:SLIDES “MODELLING MINSKY: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED AND THE WAY FORWARD”

The origins and evolution of the debate on wage-led and profit-led regimes

Marc Lavoie (University of Ottawa)

Marc Lavoie, one of the most well-known Post-Keynesian economists and author of dozens of articles and several books on Post-Keynesian macroeconomics, talks about the controversial debate on wage-led and profit-led regimes. He chooses a historical approach to this topic as he outlines essential publications and empirical work on the relation of growth and distribution. Lavoie introduces both Marxian-Goodwin and the Keynesian-Kaleckian-Kaldorian view, summarises the debate and presents the impact on policy decision making.
Download: SLIDES “THE ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF THE DEBATE ON WAGE-LED AND PROFIT-LED REGIMES”

Stock-Flow Consistency, more than an accounting framework

Antoine Godin (Kingston University)

Antoine Godin, who is an outstanding expert in Stock-Flow Consistent models in combination with Agent-Based modelling, talks about the progress models that has been made in the field of SFC models. He focuses on methodological aspects and shortly describes the evolution of the SFC approach and its references to Post-Keynesian economics. He presents advantages as well as limitations of this approach and outlines current literature and debates, for example the combination of SFC and Agent Based models, contributions to ecological macroeconomics and progress in empirical work.
Download: SLIDES “STOCK-FLOW CONSISTENCY, MORE THAN AN ACCOUNTING FRAMEWORK”

Plenary Session III: Plural Macroeconomics – Where do we go from here?

The final plenary session of the conference dealt with strategic themes towards pluralism in economics chaired by Sebastian Gechert (Macroeconomic Policy Institute), current spokesperson of the FMM research network.

How to promote alternative macroeconomic ideas: Are there limits to running with the (mainstream) pack?

Sebastian Dullien (University of Applied Science Berlin)

The first keynote speech was given by Sebastian Dullien, current spokesperson of FMM and who is one of the most well-known German economists in applied European economics and a very active contributor to the pluralist debate. Sebastian discusses the strategy of “running with the pack” by using orthodox methods to disseminate pluralist economics and politics. Referring to diverse examples Sebastian addresses the pros and cons of “running with the pack” and proposes alternative approaches to achieve more pluralism in economics.
Download: SLIDES “HOW TO PROMOTE ALTERNATIVE MACROECONOMIC IDEAS: ARE THERE LIMITS TO RUNNING WITH THE (MAINSTREAM) PACK?”

Irene van Staveren, professor of pluralist development economics, presents her pluralist teaching method for the introductory level. Based on her textbook “Economics After the Crisis: An Introduction to Economics from a Pluralist and Global Perspective” she suggests to focus on real-world problems and pari passu apply economic theories such as Social economics, Institutional economics, Post-Keynesian economics as well as Neoclassical economics without wasting time to single out the latter. Besides pointing out advantages of such a pluralist method Irene illustrates her approach based on interesting topics such as growth or feminist economics.
Download: SLIDES “BEYOND STIMULUS VERSUS AUSTERITY: PLURALIST CAPACITY BUILDING IN MACROECONOMICS”

Experiences and perspectives in search of pluralist teaching and research: CORE, Exploring Economics and the VfS

Janina Urban (Network for Pluralism in Economics)

Janina Urban joined the conference as a representative of the German Network for Pluralism in Economics. In the final plenary session she presents the activities and aims of the network. After a brief overview of the current state of economic teaching in the German-speaking area and the merger of critical students and dedicated teaching staff she introduces the project “Exploring Economics”, and interesting and fresh web resource which presents diverse approaches to social and economic issues as well as different schools of economic thought.
Download: SLIDES “EXPERIENCES AND PERSPECTIVES IN SEARCH OF PLURALIST TEACHING: CORE; EXPLORING ECONOMICS AND THE VFS”